Cranbourne MP met with developer to discuss campaign donation despite mounting pressure over land rezoning

Cranbourne MP Pauline Richards continued to meet with developer John Woodman despite mounting pressure over land rezoning, an inquiry has heard.

Cranbourne MP Pauline Richards.

Cranbourne MP Pauline Richards became increasingly uncomfortable about pressure from developer John Woodman in the lead-up to the 2018 state election, but continued to meet with him while he made a $20,000 donation to Victorian Labor, the state’s corruption watchdog has heard.

The Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission on Monday grilled Ms Richards, the first sitting MP to face public hearings from the commission, over her interactions with Mr Woodman and Labor lobbyist Phil Staindl.

The hearings are part of Operation Sandon, an investigation into whether there was serious misconduct used to influence major planning decisions in Melbourne’s southeast.

The commission has previously heard that Mr Woodman and Mr Staindl had discussed adding $20,000 to Ms Richard’s campaign after she was briefed about a contentious proposal, known as C219, to rezone Cranbourne West land

Speaking on Monday, Ms Richards said she had first met the developer in 2018 at fundraising events.

She told the commission that by October she had started to become concerned about regular contact from the pair and their interest in the Cranbourne West rezoning.

“I was starting to feel uncomfortable about the way he (Mr Staindl) was contacting me frequently … He started to want to discuss the issues related to that land,” she said.

“My husband had asked me not to have any signs on Mr Woodman’s land,” she said.

But Ms Richards said she had continued to have a discussion with Mr Staindl about the $20,000 Mr Woodman wanted to donate, with half the money eventually making its way to a Labor campaign in a different seat.

John Woodman. Picture: Supplied

She then met with both men for a coffee at the end of October, directly after attending a Change the Rules rally, and was asked to pass on a letter believed to be calling for the rezoning.

“I twice declined it,” she said.

“But I think on the third time, I don’t know what happened to the letter, but I wanted the meeting to end and so I may have taken the letter but never submitted it.”

Later that day, contact was made to arrange the $20,000 donation.

Ms Richards said she had made it clear she did not want the letter, could not remember if she had taken it and that she had not done anything with the document.

She also denied that she had ever told Mr Woodman she supported the Cranbourne West development.

“I have no recollection of agreeing with them,” Ms Richards said.

“I do have a tendency sometimes to sound agreeable and to smile agreeably, but I have no recollection of making a commitment that I would take on their issue.”

Ms Richards said she did not view the coffee meeting and the donation as connected.

But counsel assisting the commission, Michael Tovey QC, put it to Ms Richards that it was not a good look.

“The meeting took place in the context of a man who was pressuring you offering you, in advance of the meeting, $20,000,” he said.

“It is untenable, isn’t it, that you went into the meeting not knowing it had a very bad look to it?”